Deputies responded Sunday morning to John’s Automotive on Snug Harbor Place in Sarasota after the owner called to report his 4-year-old Mastiff, named Ashton, was missing.
According to deputies, the owner later viewed surveillance video that showed a man beating his dog to death.
When deputies returned, the owner identified the suspect in the video as employee Kevin Koscielniak, 52, no permanent address.
The owner told deputes Koscielniak was asked to leave Saturday after causing a disturbance.
Deputies say an investigation determined Koscielniak climbed over a barbed-wire fence, killed the dog with a tire iron, wrapped the dog in a blanket, cut the fence to Casey’s Auto (an adjacent business), dragged the dog onto that property and buried it there.
Koscielniak was located by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and arrested, deputies say. He is being held on $46,000 bond.
(TBO.com - April 29, 2013)
